General Questions

Q:What is Eclipse bug day?

A: Eclipse bug day is simply one day a month when Eclipse committers are dedicated to foster Eclipse community outreach.

Q:Who came up with Eclipse bug day?

A: The concept of a bug dayisn'treallynew. Chris Aniszczyk started the bug day idea within the Eclipse community. Chris and the people in #eclipse-dev on IRC really deserve the credit for getting things started.

For Developers (non-committers)

Q:What skills do I need to participate in Eclipse bug day?

A: If you have the code foo so to speak, you can pick through bugs that have been specially selected for Eclipse bug day (they have the special flag of bugday) and assign it to yourself. Once this is done, you claim the bug for yourself and can ask help from the developer via the bug or talk to them directly on IRC.

For Users (non-developers)

Q:What skills do I need to participate in Eclipse bug day?

A: There's plenty of opportunity to participate if you're not a developer! There are Eclipse bugs out there that need help with triage (see the question below) or if you're good with artwork, there's bugs out there that need help with art!

Q:How do I triage bugs?

A: Programming skills might help you fix particular bugs, but triaging most bugs will not require any programming knowledge. Bug triaging is a great way for people who do not know anything about programming to return something to the Eclipse community. To get started with triaging a bug, simply go to the Eclipse bug day page: (1) find the current bug day, (2) find a component your interested in triaging and click the triage link, (3) go through the bugs and see if there is anything missing in a bug or the bug may be out of date.

Q:What software is needed in order to assist in triaging bugs?

A: A web browser (like Firefox) and the latest stable version of Eclipse should suffice (note that some bugs may be tied to specific Eclipse versions, but those can be considered more advanced).

For Committers

Q:Why should I participate in bug day?

A: I assume as an over-worked Eclipse committer with little free-time, bugs tend to languish in the inbox without some coordinated effort to keep up with them. Bug days help keep bug-fixing on the radar and provide a great lightweight opportunity for contributors to help. Also, the community is given an opportunity to get to know committers via triage and bug fixing!

Q:How can I participate in bug day?

A: Make sure to keyword bugs (bugday) you think are reasonable for new contributors.

Also, make sure to update the respective wiki page for the current bug day if your'e participating.

On actual bug days, please hang out on IRC (specifically #eclipse-bugs) to help contributors!